Correcting images..

Dust specks are really annoying when you have captured a really interesting image as I know to my cost.This exercise raised the question of whether we should remove the dust shadow thereby in a real sense altering the content of the image. And again the question whether the speck is actually dust on the image sensor or actually part of the scene?

Looking at the image of Southsea lighthouse below at normal size, I could see a speck or two but scrolling through the image at 100% magnification revealed many more. These were removed using the Clone Brush in Lightroom ( see P598). From what I could see, the specks were dust rather than birds flying across the scene and I feel in this instance it was OK to remove the marks.





P597: Original with specks

 

P598 :  Corrected version

And then to look at lens flare correction....sometimes flare polygons can enhance an image but mostly I find they work against what I'm trying to achieve. In the case of the following image ( P601), a curious statue down in Gunwharf Quays, I think the flare draws the eye away....It was a mistake and in this instance its removal improved the image ( P602).



P601 : f13 @ 1/200 22mm  AWB



P602: Altered version